The U.S. ship AMERICA, 1137 tons, 2 decks, was built at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, probably by the shipwrights Fernald & Pettigrew, in 1846, and registered at the port of New York on 9 November 1846. She was built for D. & A. Kingsland & Co's Empire Line of sailing packets between New York and Liverpool (the vessels sailed from Liverpool in the Black Star Line). Her original master was S. Weare, who was succeeded before April 1848 by Edmund or Edward Dunn, who was succeeded by Joseph J. Lawrence in the spring of 1850. Like many "quasi-packet" vessels (in reality, regular traders), the AMERICA often sailed a triangular route, from New York to New Orleans, where she took on a cargo of cotton, to Liverpool, returning to New York. In 1847, she was advertised as running in the Third Line of sailing packets between New York and New Orleans, and in 1859, Capt. J. W. Howe, in the Brigham Line of sailing packets between the same two cities.

Sources: Forrest R. Holdcamper, comp., List of American-flag Merchant Vessels that received Certificates of Enrollment or Registry at the Port of New York, 1789-1867 (Record Groups 41 and 36), National Archives Publication 68-10, Special Lists 22 (Washington, DC: National Archives and Records Service, 1968), p. 38; Carl C. Cutler, Queens of the Western Ocean; The Story of America's Mail and Passenger Sailing Lines (Annapolis: United States Naval Institute, c1961), pp. 259, 382, 504, 526.

The British ship AMERICA was built at Maitland, Nova Scotia, in 1848. 706/690 tons (old/new measurement); 140.6 x 29.2 x 20.6 feet (length x beam x depth of hold). The annual volumes of Lloyd's Register of Shipping for 1848/49-1863/64 give the following additional information:

Master:
     1848/49-1849/50 - Cornish
     1850/51-1852/53 - G. Watkins
     1853/54         - W. Gilks
     1854/55-1858/59 - Gardyne
     1859/60-1860/61 - Williams
     1860/61-1863/64 - Laugharn

Owner:
     1848/49-1849/50 - Allison & [Co]
     1850/51-1852/53 - Wilson & Co
     1853/54         - Melhuish
     1854/55-1858/59 - Baines & Co [Black Ball Line of sailing
                       packets to Australia]
     1859/60-1863/64 - Haynes & [Co]

Port of Registry:
     1848/49-1849/50 - St. John, New Brunswick
     1850/51-1863/64 - Liverpool

Port of Survey:
     1848/49-1853/54 - Liverpool
     1854/55-1856/57 - London
     1857/58-1858/59 - [not given]
     1859/60         - Liverpool
     1860/61         - [not given]
     1861/62-1863/64 - Liverpool

Destined Voyage:
     1848/49-1849/50 - New York
     1850/51-1852/53 - Africa
     1853/54         - [not given]
     1854/55-1856/57 - Australia
     1857/58-1858/59 - [not given]
     1859/60         - North America
     1860/61         - [not given]
     1861/62-1863/64 - China

The entry for the AMERICA in the 1863/64 annual volume of Lloyd's Register is stamped "LOST"; however, I have not yet investigated the particulars.

For additional information, including possible surviving pictorial representations, see the following two works on the Black Ball Line of Australian packets:

1. Dave Hollett, Fast passage to Australia; the history of the Black Ball, Eagle, and White Star Lines of Australian packets (London: Fairplay, 1986).
2. Michael Stammers, The passage makers (Brighton: Teredo Books, 1978).

For surviving pictures of the AMERICA, check also the indexes to pictures of vessels maintained by the Australian National Maritime Museum (for more information, see in particular the ANMM's online publication, Pathfinder No.3: Immigration - Sailing Ships).

For surviving accounts of voyages of the AMERICA to Australia, see Ian Hawkins Nicholson, Log of logs; a catalogue of logs, journals, shipboard diaries, letters, and all forms of voyage narratives, 1788 to 1988, for Australia and New Zealand and surrounding oceans, Roebuck Society Publication Nos. 41, 47 (2 vols; Yaroomba, Qld: The Author jointly with the Australian Association for Maritime History, [1990]-1993).

Sources: Canadian Ship Information Database, quoting National Archives of Canada, RG 42, Vol. 1344 (original reference Vol. 133 = microfilm reel C-385), p. 36; Lloyd's Register of Shipping, annual volumes for 1848/49-1863/64.

The steamship AMERICA was built for Norddeutscher Lloyd by Caird & Co, Greenock (yard #96), and was launched in November 1862. 2,752 tons; 318 x 40 feet (length x breadth); clipper bow, 1 funnel, 3 masts; iron construction, screw propulsion, inverted engines, service speed 11 knots; accommodation for 76 passengers in 1st class, 107 in 2nd class, and 480 in steerage; crew of 84 to 102.

25 May 1863, maiden voyage, Bremen-Southampton-New York, with 216 passengers and 300 tons of freight. 1864, briefly under the Russian flag during the Prussian war with Denmark. 1872, engines compounded by Day, Summers & Co, Southampton. 1882, engines rebuilt in Bremerhaven. 27 January 1894, last voyage, Bremen-New York-Baltimore. 29 June 1894, sold to F. Fratelli & Co, La Spezia, and renamed ORAZIO; re-sold to S. Repetto, Genoa. 9 September 1894, sold to La Spezia for scrapping. 1895, scrapped at La Spezia.

Sources: Edwin Drechsel, Norddeutscher Lloyd Bremen, 1857-1970; History, Fleet, Ship Mails, vol. 1 (Vancouver: Cordillera Pub. Co., c1994), p. 18, no. 12; Arnold Kludas, Die Seeschiffe des Norddeutschen Lloyd, Bd. 1: 1857 bis 1919 (Herford: Koehler, c1991), pp. 12-13 (picture); Noel Reginald Pixell Bonsor, North Atlantic Seaway; An Illustrated History of the Passenger Services Linking the Old World with the New (2nd ed.; Jersey, Channel Islands: Brookside Publications), vol. 2 (1978), p. 545. Michael J. Anuta, Ships of Our Ancestors (Menominee, MI: Ships of Our Ancestors, 1983), p. 6, reproduces what purports to be a photograph of the AMERICA, courtesy of the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA.

The U.S. ship AMERICAN EAGLE was built at New York by Jacob A. Westervelt & William Mackey and launched in 1846. 899/1059 tons (old/new measurement); 158 ft 5 in x 30 ft 3 in x 21 ft 6 in (length x beam x depth of hold); 3 decks; draft 20 ft 6 in. She served in Griswold's Black X Line of sailing packets between New York and London from 1846 to 1867, during which period her westbound passages averaged 35 days, her shortest passage being 22 days, her longest 57. I do not at present know her history after 1867, or her ultimate fate.

Source: Robert Greenhalgh Albion, Square-riggers on Schedule; The New York Sailing Packets to England, France, and the Cotton Ports (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1938), pp. 282-283, 298.

The U.S. ship AMITY was built at New York by F.Cheeseman in 1816. 382 tons; 106 ft 6 in x 28 ft 6 in x 14 ft 3 in (length x beam x depth of hold. She served in the Black Ball Line of sailing packets between New York and Liverpool from the founding of the Line in 1818 until 1824, during which period her westbound passages averaged 39 days, her shortest voyage being 22 days, her longest 58 days. On 24 April 1824, the AMITY, 37 days out of Liverpool for New York, was wrecked on Squam Beach, New Jersey, near Manasquan.

Source: Robert Greenhalgh Albion, Square-riggers on Schedule; The New York Sailing Packets to England, France, and the Cotton Ports (Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1938), pp. 220 and 276-277.